Spies Like Us
by Red Bess Rackham
Summary: Spies AU. Agents Everdeen, Mellark and Hawthorne are on a mission to take down the newly elected President and expose his corrupt dealings. All they have to do is get in, get out, and not get caught... Oneshot. For the Girl on Fire ficathon.


**Disclaimer:** You know the drill, homeslice. It ain't mine.

**A/n:** The amazing gigglemonster posted this prompt: "_gen, SPY AU!11!_" and after a few days of niggling, the plot bunny finally semi-concretely formed… and proceeded to get _wildly out of control_. Any attempts I made to steer the direction or cut it down in terms of size were thoroughly ignored by my muse. So, no promises this is any good, but… it happened.

(Listen to sexy spy music when reading this.)

**Prompt:** _gen; SPY AU!11!_ (For gigglemonster)

* * *

**Spies Like Us**

When Katniss climbed smoothly out of the vehicle in her brand new dress and matching high heels, Gale let out a low whistle.

"You look amazing, Katniss," he smiled warmly.

"Yeah, well," she shrugged. The dress itself, she agreed, was amazing. Cinna's work, of course, and he always made their outfits for missions. The dress was long and moved like liquid, a blue-green color that seemed to shimmer and change depending on the angle of the light. Her jewelry was understated but sparkling and complimented the clutch she held with neatly manicured nails.

"You're not bad yourself," she said, only half teasing. Gale was in a classic black tuxedo and looked quite handsome. "Of course, it's nothing like those suits you and Peeta wore on the District 1 mission last month."

He laughed at the memory. "Those were _far_ too _glittery_ for my taste." He cocked his head slightly, surveying her. "_Where_ are you keeping your gun?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." She punched him lightly on the arm and they laughed.

Gale checked his expensive watch and asked, "You ready for this?"

She shrugged again. "As I'll ever be. It better not take too long."

"Don't worry, Katniss. We'll be home in time for Prim's birthday dinner."

Haymitch growled into their earpieces from SD-12's base. "Could we focus and get this underway? And code names, please, you're not rookies anymore."

"Somebody's hungover," murmured Gale, taking his partner's arm.

"When is he not?" replied Katniss.

"Hah-hah," their handler said humorlessly. "Get on with the mission."

Mouth still curved up in amusement, Gale and Katniss exchanged glances and mumbled, "Yes sir."

The pair approached the lavish dwelling, blending seamlessly amongst the other pairs and groups coming from the parked cars or chauffeur-driven limousines. She tilted her chin up slightly and at once they were in character (Mr. and Mrs. Disgustingly Rich, as Peeta had joked earlier).

"Invitation?" the man at the door smiled pleasantly.

Gale produced the envelope with the green ink and gold seal, while Katniss scoffed quietly beside him.

"It's ridiculous that we even _need_ one," she said haughtily, drawling and affected like she'd practiced. "Madame Trinket is a dear, dear friend, and she's been her _scads_ of times. It's _pract_-ically an insult."

Gale shared a knowing and long-suffering look with the doorman, who handed them back their invitation.

"Everything seems to be in order. The main ballroom is straight on through; to the left is the coat check area."

"Thank you ever so much," Gale nodded, his Capitol accent prominent and rolling off his tongue as natural as if he were born with it.

"We're in." Katniss said under her breath.

"Good." Haymitch's voice replied in their ears. "You should've worked harder on that accent of yours, sweetheart. You sounded like his retarded cousin."

A wide, glowing smile was pasted on her face for show as they entered the main room, but she said through grit teeth, "Bite me."

They heard him laugh as they weaved through the other finely dressed party patrons, smiling and greeting, acting like they belonged. Gale and Katniss accepted flutes of champagne from a passing waiter and Gale effortlessly began chatting with the Secretary of Defense about the rising price of leather and diamonds. She pretended to be interested and nodded along at appropriate moments. It almost never ceased to amaze her how good Gale was at this part. He blended instantly and easily, while she always felt like a poor actress playing dress-up. She was good at the other stuff, the physical stuff – the fighting, taking out bad guys, breaking in and getting out.

They mingled around the room and when they got to President Snow, they were suitably bubbly and gracious and utterly forgettable. This was the part of the plan she hated.

"He'll know it was us," she'd protested when Haymitch and Beetee went over the plan with them.

"He won't know shit," her handler shook his head. "The guest list is over eight hundred, filling three of his five floor mansion. That's not including all the security personnel or servants that have been hired for the event, either."

She'd opened her mouth to say more but Beetee interjected, "He's trying to make nice with the Districts, and he's invited hundreds of leaders and political figures, any number of who have their own rivals and protestors. There are at least a dozen guests on the list who openly despise Snow, but like I said, he's trying to smooth things over now that he's President. You know, make deals, schmooze…"

"You'll be two vaguely important faces in a sea of 'em." Haymitch assured them and took a swig of his drink. "Play your part right and he'll forget he ever saw you."

"And we'll be taking care of the cameras in the areas where your presence would be suspicious." Beetee confirmed then had proceeded to tell them how they'd be going about getting Snow's fingerprints for the vault.

Snow shook their hands and thanked them for coming, and they chatted with him very briefly, and in mere moments his eyes were already sliding past them to the next guests.

Gale and Katniss casually ducked into a doorway seconds later and she opened her clutch to reapply her lipstick while he deftly removed the thin glove on the hand he'd used to shake Snow's hand. He turned it inside out and dropped it into her open clutch as she replaced her lipstick. The glove, if it could be called that, was really more of a film that Beetee had invented. They'd applied it to Gale's skin earlier like paint, and it dried invisible and impossible to detect to the eye or even to the touch. It was ingenious, and imprinted the hands of whoever Gale shook hands with, but only "remembered" whatever he'd last touched – in this case, Snow.

They rejoined the crowded room, picked up more champagne, and set about mingling until they received the go-ahead from Haymitch.

* * *

Personally, Peeta always found that getting in was often harder than getting out when it came to missions. Like this one, for instance, where he was required to get inside the elevator shaft of an excessively large mansion (built more like an official building than a home), which was zealously guarded by a band of trained Peacekeepers and average rent-a-cops. He would have to avoid numerous cameras, not set off a number of alarms, or the suspicions of said guards as well as the throng of finely dressed guests attending the President's Ball.

And that was only part one.

Peeta rubbed his gloved hands together and exhaled in a rush, focusing on the task at hand.

"Blue skies…" he whispered and was off like a shot, darting between shadows.

He stopped behind a large tree and waited, muscles tense and ready. He was rewarded for his caution when a few moments later two guards passed within feet of him, glancing around without interest, and carried on their way. He allowed himself a quick smile – he always was the best at staying still and blending into his environment, but Beetee's Chameleon Vest certainly didn't hurt things.

The instant the guards had rounded the corner, Peeta sprinted to one of the home's decorative pillars, drenched in shadow. This was the side entrance, barely ever used, and closed off to guests so he needn't worry about being seen by any them. He only had, however, roughly three minutes before the next set of guards came by on their circuit of the grounds, which he felt was cutting it close for the climb ahead of him.

He reached into the pack on his back and retrieved a pair of circular discs with handles and pressed the one in his right hand to the stone. There was a soft sucking noise and Peeta reached up as high as he could with his left, flattening the disc into the stone as he had with the first. After it made the same noise, he gave the one in his right hand a sharp twist and a jerk, popping it off the pillar's face, reaching up, sticking it back down. It was in this manner he scaled the side of the house, avoiding windows, staying in the crevice and shadow provided by the pillars, and increasing his pace when he reached the top floor where no pillars could hide him and he was highlighted by moonlight.

He dropped onto the roof as lightly as he could and packed away the discs, getting his gun out from his belt now, just in case any guards were on the roof. According to plan, there shouldn't be, but he'd learned from enough missions that things hardly ever went according to plan. Luck was with him, however, and he made it across the roof quick and quiet without incident. It took seconds to jimmy open the door and he was in.

* * *

After almost twenty-five minutes, and after which Katniss had bluffed her way convincingly through a thoroughly insipid conversation with a group of women about the merits of lace versus cotton and the trendiest colors for bathroom décor, Haymitch's voice crackled in her ear again.

"Peeta's in position."

She lifted her champagne flute to her lips for a sip in order to cover her response, whispered through nearly unmoving lips. Her eyes sought Gale across several groups of people, catching his grey-eyed gaze. He gave her the slightest of nods, and she proceeded to excuse herself from the women (who were now bragging about the price of their outfits). They met up at the side of the room, clasped one another's hands and headed into the hallway.

A few of the servants glanced up from the table they were setting (with plates upon plates of rich and colorful food) along the long, extravagantly decorated wall, but they only saw a grinning, giggling couple who'd already had too much champagne heading to the elevators. The pair slapped at the buttons sloppily and practically stumbled into the elevator, presumably heading to the second or third floor, where it seemed (for some reason) the more obnoxious and intoxicated guests were congregating. The young man setting out a tray of desserts shook his head. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

A second after the elevator doors shut, a panel opened in the roof and Peeta peered in. "Well don't you two look lovely." He grinned and tossed Gale a gold key. As Gale proceeded to slide the key into a slot at the top of the elevator's panel of switches and buttons, Peeta asked Katniss, "Cinna?"

"Who else." She replied as she reached up to hand him her clutch containing the glove with Snow's prints.

"Code?" asked Gale.

"Rose."

Katniss snorted. "Cute."

Gale tapped 7673 into the keypad that had been revealed when he turned the key, and then the button for the top floor lit up. He pulled the key out and handed it back up to Peeta, who disappeared briefly then dropped a black back-pack in front of Katniss.

"The cameras are on loop, but there's at least two extra guards up there. A few guests were a little over zealous with the alcohol and have been getting off at the fourth floor, which is supposed to be closed to partiers, stumbling around and making a huge mess."

"Already? The party's only been going for what, two hours, tops?"

"Some people have no control when it comes to booze," said Gale and the three of them tried not to laugh as Haymitch sighed with aggravation over the coms.

"Just watch yourself up there. We only have fifteen minutes until the next shift, instead of thirty like we thought." Peeta warned. "They upped the security all over because of Coin and the other more… _vocal_ leaders who've arrived tonight, and now these drunk guests are giving the guards quite the headache."

The pair below nodded their understanding.

"Shouldn't take that long to get you the combination." Gale checked his watch.

"Be careful," Katniss said and Peeta winked.

"See you soon." He restored the panel in the roof and Katniss and Gale faced the elevator doors.

* * *

Halfway down the corridor that led to the main room, they heard footsteps. It was good that Peeta had alerted them about the extra guards patrolling the empty floors, as they had been expecting little to no resistance previously. Reacting immediately, Gale pushed her against the wall and she grabbed his neck, kissing him fiercely and sloppily, as though drunk. She dropped the backpack out of sight behind her legs and dress.

A trio of guards came strolling around the corner, startled when they spotted the pair, hands jumping to their guns. "Hey!" one shouted.

Katniss and Gale broke apart, swaying, looking confused and flushed.

"How did you two get up here?" the second asked. "This area is strictly off limits to guests."

"Oh!" Katniss fanned her face and then she and Gale both started to explain at the same time, words slurring. The guards were approaching them warily, though at least one of them seemed to be buying that they were in fact two very lost partygoers. Katniss almost felt sorry for them.

The instant they were close enough, Katniss and Gale flew into action. She dropped to one leg and swept out her other, knocking the first guard flat on his back while Gale lashed out, punching the second guard. The third guard didn't have time to bring his radio to his lips before Gale was on him. The first and second were recovering but Katniss wasn't about to allow them the chance to inflict any damage. The first took a hard kick to the stomach and a sharp elbow to head, knocking him out. The second, blood streaming down his face, tried to make a break for it while Katniss was busy, but Gale had knocked down the third guard with a series of well-placed blows and skillfully caught him by the collar and slammed into the nearest wall.

"I would've got him but I can't run in these heels," Katniss sniffed when Gale was finished and shot her a cocky smile.

"You can't _walk_ in those heels."

"Don't make me punch you too." She scooped up the back-pack and hurried after him.

"Step it up, team," Haymitch said warningly. "Between the three you, the downed guards are stacking up and that only decreases the time we have to get this done before someone notices something's wrong."

They hastened to living room, which was massive and littered with expensive furniture and decorations, and dashed into the dark office area through the pair of glass doors on the other side. Gale went straight for the computer, slipped on a pair of leather gloves to avoid leaving his prints, and began typing furiously. Katniss opened the back-pack and first grabbed a smaller, but heavy bag and set it beside Gale. She then pulled out the dark clothes, vest and boots remaining in the pack and crossed to a darkened corner of the room by the bookshelf.

"Don't look." She said and turned her back to him, sliding off her dress. She could feel him practically rolling his eyes at her.

It wasn't like he hadn't seen any of it before on other missions, same with Peeta, but for whatever reason, she could never feel completely comfortable stripping in front of him like this (_she_ always turned away whenever _they_ had to strip down in front of her). Maybe it was a weird thing to draw the line at considering their line of work, but draw she did.

Once she'd changed clothes and traded her shiny high heels for practical boots, she stuffed her previous garments in the back-pack and slung the straps over her shoulders. As Gale continued rapping away at the keyboard, she flashed him a smile.

"Good luck."

"You too."

* * *

Retrieving the key from the small safe behind the painting (why were they always behind paintings?) in the bedroom on the fourth floor hadn't been too difficult, though as he'd told Katniss and Gale, he'd had unexpected company with the handful of intoxicated guests stumbling around. When he'd spotted them initially, his heart had sunk, but he quickly found it was incredibly easy to slip past them unnoticed while they danced unsteadily and knocked over vases. The noise they made covered any he made and when the guards showed up to round them up, Peeta simply ducked into the open elevator. He was in the shaft seconds later.

(Climbing down, he'd lost his footing and dropped too loudly onto the moving elevator, and he winced, holding his breath. Haymitch chastised him for his clumsiness but luck was still with him – the couple inside hadn't noticed a thing.)

Putting the key _back_, however, was proving to be much more difficult. The elevator was constantly full, giving him no chance to drop inside and get let off on the fourth floor. He didn't want to have to resort to physically taking anyone out, as that would only create more problems, but Haymitch was in his ear, reminding him with growing fervor and irritation that Peeta need to replace _the damn key and get your ass to the vault_.

"I know," Peeta hissed into his com.

"If you know, then do it." Haymitch snapped. "I shouldn't have to remind you that time is of the essence, here, _Picasso_."

Peeta rolled his eyes and declined to answer. No, he didn't need to be reminded, thank you very much. He was very aware that the longer he lingered in the elevator shaft, the less time he would have to get to the vault and be ready for Gale to give him the combinations.

Finally the elevator came to a stop, empty, and didn't move. Peeta exhaled in relief. Acting quickly, he removed the panel in the elevator's roof and dropped in, then stood awkwardly on the narrow bar lining the elevator walls and strained with the effort of sliding the panel back into place with his fingertips.

He'd just set foot back on the floor and was reaching to stab the number _4_, when the elevator shuddered to life. He had no time to react, nowhere to hide, pressing himself against the wall and then doors opened. A tall, slim woman dressed in a puffy outfit that couldn't seem to make up its mind what pattern or color it was, stepped in. She glanced at Peeta, who was dressed in dark cargo pants, large pocketed vest, leather gloves and a dark shirt, and shot him a wide smile through heavy-lidded eyes, thick with makeup.

"Hey," she greeted as the doors slid shut and then pressed the button for the third floor.

"Hi," Peeta smiled back, heart thudding in his chest. Was he about to completely blow this mission?

"Interesting outfit." She waved her hand at him and continued to stare at him like he was a particularly delicious meal. "Where'd you get it?"

"Thanks, my… girlfriend picked it out." He tried, hoping she would get off as soon as possible.

"Oh."

Bingo. The smile dropped off her sharp features instantly and she faced the front again, getting off at the second floor instead of the third.

"What the hell is going on?" Haymitch snarled.

Peeta jabbed the button for the fourth floor. "Relax. It's all under control."

* * *

In the basement, Peeta encountered a number of guards. The first few, he was able to dance from shadow to shadow and the bored men patrolling the various empty rooms were oblivious to his presence. Peeta knew he wasn't as stealthy as Gale or as graceful as Katniss when it came to this kind of thing, but he hadn't gone through months upon months of training for nothing, and was far better at walking soft than he had been even a year ago.

Still, there came a point when there were no more crevices, doorways and shadows to conceal himself in, and he had to make it down the long hallway to the ancient mahogany door at the end, without being heard or spotted. He knew from the blueprints and photos SD-12 had procured that beyond that door was a bright, well-lit antechamber, followed by three sets of modern steel and titanium doors (equipped with various security measures). His advantage was the guards making their circuit were focused on protecting the entrance – the bottom level and the hallway to the main door – but beyond that, he'd be home free (relatively speaking, of course).

His timing had to be spot-on, so Peeta waited, counting silently in his head. The first guard passed, then the second… there was third. Instincts that had been drilled into him through hours of training allowed him to run down the hallway, light on his feet, his footfalls covered by the guards' heavy boots. He reached the end of the hall in seconds, but knew he didn't have enough time to slip in the giant door before the next guard appeared – which was _now._

The fourth guard rounded the corner and looked up in surprise, opening his mouth to call out. Peeta was on him instantly, covering his mouth and thrusting his fingers hard into a nerve cluster at the man's neck (something else he'd only recently mastered). The guard stiffened briefly and fell unconscious, and Peeta had rarely been gladder for his training.

He slid the guard under the wide gold and paisley couch several feet away (that looked like it hadn't ever been sat on) and jumped back up to the mahogany door. He could hear the steps of the next guard clomping steadily and increasing in volume, so Peeta wasted no time hauling open the door and slipping through, pulling it shut as quickly and quietly as he dared.

He sucked in his breath and waited, clutching the handle tight, but though the guard's footsteps grew louder at first, a few agonizing seconds later they began to fade without variation in their rhythm and Peeta knew he was clear for the minutes he needed to penetrate the vault.

At the first set of shining metal doors, Peeta used the swipe card. When he reached the second set, he donned the thin glove that Gale had been wearing earlier, right side out, and pressed it to the reader embedded in the sleek walls. It blinked green, recognizing the prints as Snow's, and allowed him passage. Once at the third set of doors, Peeta leaned his eye directly to the retina scanner, allowing it to fully scan the contact lens he was wearing (something a different team had managed to procure on a separate mission). Again the computer believed he was Snow, and let him through.

He grinned and crossed into the final antechamber. Faced with the intimidatingly large vault doors, Peeta blew air out through his lips and cracked his knuckles. He was ready for the next step.

* * *

"You know, you never answered my question from before," Katniss said, opening the door to the wide open roof. A chilly wind blew by, tickling her dark hair.

"What question?" Haymitch replied, his tone irritated.

"Before we left on tonight's mission. I asked you if you would come to Prim's birthday dinner."

Haymitch sighed.

"What? It's a simple question. I know you don't have plans – well, with another human being, anyways."

"How do you know I don't have plans?"

"Please. I know you."

"Could we keep the chatter down, Mockingjay?"

Katniss smirked as the radio crackled with her handler's obvious aggravation. "I don't really want you there anyway," she lied, knowing it would irk him. They constantly pushed each other's buttons. "Just making conversation."

"Do you really think now is the time?"

"Do you have to answer every question with another question?"

Haymitch sighed heavily again in exasperation while Katniss laughed softly to herself and secured the ropes and buckles to the roof. She'd won this round, it seemed.

"Have it your way then," she said and looped the carabineer to her belt. "Going over." She didn't wait for a response but swiftly climbed over the edge and began repelling down the side of the building.

* * *

"Whiskey, Picasso, I'm in," Gale watched as the screen before him flashed to the desktop and he allowed himself a quick smile. Beetee's hacking lessons certainly had paid off – he was fairly sure that was the fastest he'd hacked into a level 9 server before. He clicked files open rapidly.

"Copy Hunter, go for combination." Haymitch responded.

Gale quickly read out the complicated string of numbers and letters and as soon as Peeta confirmed that the vault was open, Gale set about logging off and erasing his presence in the system. He doubted it would matter once the mission was complete, but better safe than sorry. The last thing they needed was for someone to pull the mangled harddrive from the rubble and somehow be able to recover enough data to link him and SD-12's involvement in this.

Once finished, he swiftly moved around the room setting charges with small squares of C4 from the bag Katniss had left. Just enough to blow the office (with Snow's records, servers, and so on) and severely damage the whole floor. Bag empty, he folded it until it was as small as a wallet (another wonderful invention of Beetee's) and shoved it into a pocket inside his jacket.

In the hallway, Gale took the extra minutes needed to drag the unconscious guards into the elevator but didn't hit any buttons. He himself took the stairwell and planned to hit the down button when he reached the main level to ensure the guards weren't caught in the blast.

* * *

Peeta wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He took a deep breath to steady both of his trembling hands before reaching out slowly and oh so carefully between the thin beams of red light to the disc raised in the center of them. He'd deactivated almost half of them, but per a sneaky little security addition, deactivating any more beams would cause the alarm to go off anyways.

He closed his fingers gently onto the thin slip of plastic and just as gingerly began to retract his hand. His eyes darted to the timer display and back. It was steadily nearing zero.

_Just a few seconds more…_ he thought.

If that timer hit zero before he'd reactivated the beams, the alarm would be set off. While it certainly made his job harder, Peeta couldn't help but admire all these extra bits of security that went into protecting this little disc. Of course, _harder_ was relative.

Hand out, he slid the disc into the case sewn into his breast pocket and sucked in his breath as the timer changed – _3… 2…_ Nimble fingers flying, Peeta removed the device he'd used to shut off the various beams, tied wires back together and replaced the panel on the pedestal – _1…_

He grinned as the beams reappeared and tossed his tools into his bag.

* * *

Huddled in the bushes below the lower balcony, Katniss waited tensely for word from her partners. Word that meant they'd got what they'd come her for, that this was going to be over very soon. If they made it out, and made it out with the disc, then Snow was going down once and for all.

They'd spent the last year lining up the dominoes and SD-12 had used other agents in other Districts to complete a wide range of missions. Snow may have been elected President in the spring, but the majority of the population was still ignorant to the corruption that ran rampant in his cabinet – starting with him. A lot of it was political and frankly Katniss couldn't be bothered to remember all the details (that's what Peeta and her superiors were for), but she knew that his activities included money laundering, blackmail, the supply of illegal drugs, prostitution rings and other illicit and criminal undertakings. Personally, it amazed her that he'd managed to keep it all under wraps this long.

"Clear," Peeta's voice panted in her ear. "Got it and headed to the rendezvous."

"Copy," Katniss replied. Just a beat later, she heard Gale, back amongst the guests, confirming his part was complete.

"Copy. Launching." She said and pulled the pins on the smoke grenades, lobbing them onto the balcony.

* * *

It was complete pandemonium after that. The smoke grenades went off, people were screaming and stampeding in every direction, glass shattered, and then the fire alarm went off as a result of the smoke. Some guests were vaulting the lower balcony, most were pouring out onto the lawn in a total panic, while others had made it to their vehicles and were trying to take cover, clueless about what was going on. Guards were trying to corral people but they might as have been trying to stop a tsunami with their bare hands.

In the ensuing chaos, Katniss fled to the woods. She found the black sedan with Peeta leaning comfortably against the driver's door. He gave her a little two fingered salute and she grinned, breathless and full of adrenaline from the mission.

"Five seconds," Gale's voice was low over the com and she turned to watch.

The upper floor of Snow's mansion suddenly exploded in a fiery bloom of smoke and fire, windows blowing out and debris flying everywhere. She was glad to see that as a result of the smoke grenades, the guests were either out of the building or yelling and scrambling around on the lower floors.

Gale made his way calmly across the grass, hand in his pocket, the flaming mansion beyond turning him into a mere silhouette. He reached them and said, "It's done."

Katniss let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and when Haymitch spoke, he sounded like he was trying not to sound impressed, going for his usual gruff manner instead.

"Everything almost fell apart with those guards," he said roughly. "And Peeta nearly blew the whole thing early on by landing too loud on the elevator roof. We're just lucky the people inside were too busy jamming their tongues down each other's throats to notice. And that woman who came on a minute later! If it had been Snow – "

"Would it kill you to say we did a good job?" Katniss asked sharply.

Peeta and Gale exchanged amused looks as the three of them piled into the car.

"Just get your asses back for debriefing and we'll talk about whether it was actually a good job or not."

Peeta revved the engine and they headed down the dirt road that would eventually take them back to the highway. He smiled wide, eyes sparkling and turned to his partners.

"Mission accomplished."

**-end-**

* * *

**A/n:** There were slight Alias and Dollhouse references in there if you caught 'em. Thank you for reading!


End file.
